


The Victim and the Murderer

by Trash_King



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 11:10:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3408392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trash_King/pseuds/Trash_King
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blackwall and Cole have a conversation after the Warden-Constable finds out that he spared the Templar who killed him. Parallels were drawn, conclusions had and coming to terms were made a tiny bit easier.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Victim and the Murderer

**Author's Note:**

> I’m unable to play the games so my access to events are far limited so this may not be entirely accurate? The dialogue is taken from the dragon age wiki but the rest are stitched up with my observations of what material I could get my hands on.

His thoughts traversed to Cole even before Blackwall spoke, coiling.   
  
Curling, winding like roots upon his form, seeking answers.   
  
"I hear you found the Templar that killed you."   
  
  
It wasn’t a question more than it was a statement, that much is known.   
  
But Cole is unable to identify his true queries just yet, so many knots. Too many tangles like the man’s hair.   
  
Each thought tangling, twisting with emotion, forever intertwining with each other.   
  
So he settles for the simplest answer to the one statement presented to him at the moment.   
  
"Yes. His hurt is healed, so is mine."  
  
  
His affirmation however, does not seem to begin unraveling the complexity of the other’s whispers as yet another question follows.   
  
"Just like that? How do you forgive someone who does that to you?"   
  
  
He feels, more than sees, the intensity of his conversational partner’s gaze when it lands squarely upon him. There is incredulity. A stronger pull this time.   
  
Blackwall speaks as if he expects a different ending, perhaps he is right. He was…going to kill him.   
  
Had wanted to at first. Cole remembered that jolt, frisson of heat settling in his core. The weight of Bianca in his hands but he also remembers-  
  
  
"He was…frightened. The other Templars were older. He didn’t know what to do."   
  
Quiet puffs of uneven breathing. Hitch hitch hitching in his chest. Afraid-   
  
"Afraid of them. _Afraid_ of me. Can’t face it. Lock it away and pretend it wasn’t real. “   
  
Burning as legs sped into action, invisible fist choking, closing off throat-   
  
"He fled far far away, tried to forget, to be someone new."   
  
  
And even if he were not like the others, the harshness in the other’s tone was not to be missed. Cold. Hard.   
  
Traces of bitterness like the dredges of tea leaves left in cups.   
  
"He deserved to be punished. This Templar who hurt you…you made him forget?"   
  
  
The spirit-human entity blinked hard once. “He was, and yes.”  
  
"Why did you do that? You shouldn’t have taken that from him."   
  
There is a particular edge in Blackwall’s demeanour that prompts Cole to look up, just ever so slightly.   
  
Look up. Look at. Look _through_.  
  
Just a glimpse for a bit from under the hat and his wild straggly locks obscuring most of his vision.   
  
"Why?"   
  
  
Eyes were trouble. Give away too much while not at all at the same time. Just enough though.   
  
Enough for him to understand where this is coming from.   
  
  
"Taking away a bad memory is one thing. Taking away guilt is another. Without that guilt, it’s as though he never killed you."   
  
  
Brows knit together softly as if to mirror his conversational partner’s image.   
  
"Isn’t the world better that way?"   
  
"I.." A stumble. "I don’t know."   
  
  
And Cole _sees_.   
  
OId conversations, memories, filtered away being drawn to the surface once more. He remembers now.   
  
Faces. Words. Names.   
  
Liddy. Rainier. Callier.   
  
  
"I understand. Making the Templar forget what he did to me is like making you forget Rainier."   
  
Blackwall wasn’t just talking about the Templar. He was talking about himself. He sees himself in that man.   
  
  
"But Isn’t me not hurting more important than him being punished?"   
  
  
He truly does believe that they- that he deserves to hurt. Holding onto it like punishment. Wounds that hurt. That pull and tug and refuse to heal.   
  
But he is not that Templar.   
  
  
  
Blackwall’s sign is palpable when he releases it, after a moment of silence.   
  
"We are a pair, you and I. The victim and the murderer. If it helps you, lad, then I am glad you forgave him."   
  
A concession. He means it truly for Cole. But what of himself? What will make the hurting go away? Cole sees the hurt.   
  
He sees the hurting and it always lingers like an unsightly gash, festering. He wants to help.   
  
But he doesn’t always speak right. He tries anyways.   
  
  
"You think that if you forget, you will become like that again. But you’re not him. You have..other things to carry. You can put the bodies down."   
  
  
There is silence afterwards, extending long and longer still. But he sees. That brief flicker behind the Warden-Constables eyes.   
  
Pressure in sternum easing. Noose loosening.   
  
A single "Thank you."   
  
The heaviness doesn’t leave. The hurt is not healed and Cole is unable to fix it.   
  
But this, this is better. Better is good.   
  
Perhaps one day, it will become great.


End file.
